


Lantern Love Letters

by SofireAlmond



Category: Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Bisexual Character, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Lesbian Character, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Pining, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-15 15:41:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18672625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SofireAlmond/pseuds/SofireAlmond
Summary: Rapunzel finds out that her parents weren't the only ones to attach a letter to her birthday lanterns every year since she was kidnapped.





	Lantern Love Letters

**Author's Note:**

> The first two letters were going to have a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes because she's only little and already too cool for school. But for the sake of legibility, I corrected them. Just imagine the mistakes and messy handwriting for some extra cuteness.

Lanterns. So many lanterns on this island. Guess they had to land somewhere. Rapunzel had found many letters from her parents attached to lanterns in a variety of states -- most fairly damaged. Children had drawn on many of their own lanterns, and some people had their names or initials written on the lanterns. It was funny to see one from Uncle Monty, who must have been blissfully unaware of how much he would despise her. But one particular lantern caught her eye...

A lantern with what looked like a child's drawing of presumably that child wearing the Coronian royal guard uniform and holding a sword, with a very familiar-looking bobcut that was curly in some places. As Rapunzel turned the lantern -- which was by far one of the most worn -- to inspect it, she found out that it was signed ‘Cassandra’ and inside it was a letter. It was barely legible.

  
  
_“Hi, princess Rapunzel! I'm Cassandra and I'm four years old, but you can call me Cass. I know you're just a baby right now, but one day when you're bigger, I hope we can be friends! Sorry you got kidnapped, but I'm sure they'll find you someday. Don't give up, my daddy is a royal guard so he knows your mommy and daddy and he says they love you so much they'll never stop looking!! AND there are posters up of you everywhere. I'm sure SOMEONE must have seen you. You probably won't even know you were kidnapped!_

  
_\- Cassandra”_

 

"Oh my gosh that's so CUTE!" Rapunzel squealed, "Cass is gonna be SO embarrassed when I show this to her. I wonder if there are any more..."

Rapunzel rummaged around, looking for more lanterns signed by Cassandra. Eventually, she found another one. And then another, and another, and another... Some of the drawings looked better than others. They must have been more recent drawings. Still, there was no way she would be able to sort the letters before reading them first. She picked a lantern at random and read another letter:

  
_“Happy birthday, princess Rapunzel! I'm seven now and you're three, so I guess you're still a baby -- or a toddler, I guess. Your mom and dad are still looking for you, and my dad is helping them a lot. I keep trying to help, but they won't let me because I'm just a kid. But that doesn't stop me from sneaking out to look for you at night! I found all kinds of cool spots for us to hang out, so I hope I find you soon. I can't wait to meet you!!!! I wish I was a princess... I wonder if my real mom and dad are king and queen somewhere else. Then we could be princesses together -- but strong ones, and we wouldn't wear dresses. Well, I wouldn't, at least. We're gonna rule with an IRON FIST!!!_  
  
_\- Your future best friend, Cass”_

 

"Aw, Cass... That's so sweet!" Rapunzel giggled, "Iron fist? That's so like you... I have GOT to find some more, this is just incredible. I was in her life before I even knew it, that's like... that's like destiny."

She blushed at the thought for a second, but was distracted as another lantern caught her eye. This one didn't have a drawing on it, but it looked a lot less worn than the others. Perhaps it was from last year. It was hard to believe it had only been a year since... everything. So much had happened that it felt like she had known Cassandra for as long as Cassandra knew her. She wondered if there would even be a letter in this one, as surely Cassandra would have stopped writing these by now. However, to her surprise, there WAS a letter.

  
  
_“Dear Rapunzel,_  
  
_Happy birthday. I can't believe I'm still writing you these. We're both adults now. Anyway, I really wish we could have grown up together. It's weird, I see you everywhere -- your beautiful golden hair, your earnest green eyes ~~that stare right into my soul~~... If your portraits and murals are accurate, you must be so beautiful. Apparently you're also a literal drop of sunshine? Like, you're ACTUALLY the legendary sundrop? Are you even real??? You sound perfect... too perfect to exist. I feel like I know you, but you probably don't even know I exist. Even so, I wonder... what if I found you and brought you home? ~~What if I was your knight in shining armor?~~ People write stories of some boring prince coming to your rescue and instantly falling in love with you ~~and honestly, I wouldn't blame him~~. But I'm sure you're a girl with standards. You wouldn't fall in love with some stupid prince, right? I mean, that would be so BASIC. You're better than that. You must be._  
  
~~_And now that we're both adults, what if one day... I could become a princess like I wanted as a kid -- by marrying you._~~  
  
~~_Everyone's telling me you're dead and I've never even met you, but I'm so scared. What if you ARE dead? I've never met you, but I miss you so much. Maybe even more than your parents do, if that's even possible. Where are you, Rapunzel? Please... PLEASE come home._~~  
  
_I'm sorry, this is stupid. I'm stupid. I'm sorry. ~~As IF you even like girls too.~~ You're never even going to read this. This is all a stupid, childish fantasy I use to cope with... everything. My life hasn't been the greatest, and I guess neither has yours. We both never knew our real parents. I wonder if while you were alive, we had the same childhood. Now that would just be uncanny... You deserve so much better and I'm so so sorry you never lived to see how much ~~I love~~  everyone here loves you._  
  
_With ~~love~~ condolences, Cassandra”_

  
  
"Oh. Oh my God. CASSANDRA?!" Rapunzel exclaimed, "Cass, I had no idea, I--"  
  
"Had no idea about what?"  
  
Cassandra was stood right there. How long had she been standing there? The confused, somewhat concerned look on Cassandra's face answered that question -- had she been standing there long enough to know what was going on, she would be reacting a lot more strongly than this. However, Cassandra could be... unpredictable when it came to her reactions. Usually her reactions were angry, but maybe she was just too shocked to react. Rapunzel was in shock too, and she almost blurted out a much more awkward question that Cassandra would definitely not be able to answer.  
  
"How long have you been in l--" Rapunzel blurted out, realising she'd better break this to Cassandra slowly just in the nick of time. There was no way Cassandra would admit that unless she was given undeniable proof.  
  
"How long have I been in what?" Cassandra probed bemusedly, looking even more confused.

"Okay, she definitely doesn't know," Rapunzel thought to herself... out loud accidentally.  
  
"Doesn't know wh--"  
  
"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN STANDING THERE is... uh... totally what I meant to say," Rapunzel interrupted sheepishly, unable to look her apparent secret admirer of eighteen years in the eye.  
  
Cassandra raised an eyebrow, knowing that whatever her terrible liar of a best friend slash childhood crush slash lesbian coping fantasy was going to say, it wasn't what she just said. Regardless, she decided to play along.  
  
"Uh... I dunno, like two minutes? All I saw was you looking really engrossed in a piece of paper and doing that face you do when you read a book and there's a huge plot twist that you then run to me to scream about," Cassandra said jokingly whilst doing that sassy, yet tender and warm smile Rapunzel now knew was what love looked like.  
  
"Oh," Rapunzel thought, "She can't see the lantern from that angle because I'm blocking her view."  
  
Beside the lantern was a neat pile of every love letter Cassandra had sent her for the past eighteen years -- not all of which had been read yet, as they were out of order. Rapunzel would read the rest later, but for now, she had read enough. She knew what to do -- it was now or never. She attached the whole pile to this lantern, which was the only one still in tact so the letters could even be re-attached. Then, she handed the lantern to Cassandra, eyes still awkwardly glued to her always-bare feet.  
  
Cassandra's eyes widened and her jaw dropped.  
  
"No....." She whispered in disbelief as she looked inside the lantern to see a stack of papers that varied in condition, "Are these--"  
  
"Yours?" Rapunzel interjected with a shy smirk and proceeded to babble nervously, "Yeah... Every single one -- I counted. All eighteen ‘happy birthday’s, haha... I uh, haven't read them all yet, since they were out of order, but... I read the last one you sent. It's uh... haha..... WOW... It's a doozy. You crossed out that writing a little too neatly so I could still read that part where you said you wanted to-- oh WOW I just realised why you don't like my boyfriend I'm sorry about all the PDA it must have been--"  
  
Cassandra fell to her knees and dropped the lantern. The letters went flying everywhere.  
  
"Cass? Are you okay?!" Rapunzel (who was now also on her knees) asked frantically, eyes rapidly shifting from Cassandra to the eighteen pieces of paper she was desperately trying to save from being blown into the ocean and becoming illegible forever, "Aaaaaaaaaaagh, hang on, let me just-- Oh GOD, they're everywhere and I haven't even read them all yet, I'm-- Just-- Hey, I'm sorry, hold on, just-- Give me a second-- Onetwothreefourfive-- You see any more, Cass? Cass??? Oh God, I'm sorry that was so tactless I should have-- ARGH there's another one there, lemme-- GOTCHA-- Okay, I think I got them all, let me just check-- Yeah, yeah, that's-- Okay, that's-- I think that's all of them. Sorry."  
  
Rapunzel finally looked up to see a sight she had never seen before, even when she had almost died -- a single tear fell from Cassandra's left eye. As Cassandra blinked, a second tear fell from her right eye, and then more and more kept leaking out of both eyes. They started to make wet patches in the sand that slowly grew bigger and bigger. Also in the sand was Cassandra's fists, clenched tightly with grains of sand spilling out as her hands, arms, shoulders... Wow. Her entire upper body was shaking. It was like this had been really bothering her, and she had been bottling it up for... well, eighteen years. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Rapunzel turned out better than Cassandra could have possibly imagined. Cassandra thought she was just in love with the idea of Rapunzel, but once they met and got to know each other, her feelings only strengthened. She had been pining for so, so long. And so, so afraid of Rapunzel leaving her. She thought if things got awkward, that could happen. It was her worst nightmare.  
  
"Oh, Cassandra..." Rapunzel lamented, "I'm so sorry, I've-- I've been a TERRIBLE friend..."

Cassandra's head jolted up and her eyes finally met Rapunzel's. The tears abruptly stopped from utter shock. Just looking at Rapunzel was enough to quell any resentment she had for the obliviousness. She was beautiful, especially in her beach outfit. Hibiscus in her hair, shoulders and midriff exposed, shirt the EXACT same colour as her eyes... She was just absolutely perfect. And it wasn't her fault Cassandra was terrible at expressing her feelings. Now Cassandra felt bad that she made Rapunzel feel bad that she made Cassandra feel bad. It was a cycle of guilt.  
  
"Are you KIDDING?!" Cassandra blurted, "Raps, you're the sweetest, smartest, most creative, talented, beautiful, amazing girl I ever-- You're LITERALLY a drop of SUNSHINE, you're-- you're--"  
  
"I know," Rapunzel giggled shyly, "You said that in the last letter. It was... nice. Thank you..."  
  
"I--" Cassandra burst out before lowering her voice into an almost-whisper, "I love you."  
  
"I know."  
  
Suddenly, Rapunzel's arms were wrapped around Cassandra's waist and her head rested on Cassandra's chest, eyes closed. Both of them were crying now. For what felt to both like an eternity but was actually two seconds, Cassandra froze and suddenly didn't know what to do with her hands. Even though they had embraced each other this intimately and more many times before -- which was... questionable to say the least -- it was different now. They knew. They BOTH knew what was going on between them. But Rapunzel had a boyfriend and had never even considered the possibility of loving another woman in this way and Cassandra was... Cassandra, the walking icicle. A hurricane of emotions swirled around their heads as their stomachs churned. They felt sick, but... in a good way? But also in a bad way. Like, the WORST possible way. But also the BEST way. What WAS this feeling?  
  
It was love.  
  
"I love you too, Cassandra," Rapunzel whispered through her tears.  
  
And in that one indescribable instant, the whole world fell away. They were in love and they both knew this. How could they not have seen it before? And this feeling, this incredible, MAGICAL feeling, Cassandra for once let take control of her. She hugged-- no, SQUEEZED Rapunzel back so hard that Rapunzel let out a little squeak. However, neither of them let go; they only held on tighter. As they pulled each other ever closer, their faces got closer and closer together until before they knew it...  
  
"Oh no," they both thought, "What have I done?"


End file.
